The Kiss
by tmntfan4eva
Summary: We all know that Duncan and Gwen kiss. So what led up to it?  A one shot showing some other interaction between them before they cheated. x.x


**I feel bad for all you dxc fans after seeing the leaked clip from episode thirteen, but I couldn't help but do my own little thing to go along with it. And I SWEAR this will be a one-shot! I refuse to let this turn into a multiple chapter thing no matter what you all say! Heh...not meaning to be mean or anything of course. ^^''**

It was amazing, this feeling that coursed through my body as I laid eyes on the person I thought I wouldn't see till I was voted off. Duncan. It was the best I'd felt since I'd lost him that first day in the competition. Ha! I laughed lightly to myself. What was I saying? He didn't mean that much to me. He was my best friend, sure, but he was nothing more. I shouldn't be thinking or feeling the way I was. He was Courtney's boyfriend for crying out loud! And we were friends now. So why did I find myself unable to push the thought of him from my mind? Why was he so different from the other guys? Why could he make my heart flutter whenever he looked my way? When he didn't even try. I sighed. "Gwen!" he said with a bright smile, walking over to me. "Miss me?" he said cockily, wiggling his brow suggestively. It didn't help that he spread his arms open wide as if to invite me in for a hug.

I swallowed hard, looking over my shoulder to make sure the rest of my team still wasn't around before I allowed a content smile pass my lips and I leapt forward. I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my head on the front of his shoulder. I knew this was pushing it and more then likely going to get me in trouble with him, but I couldn't help myself. I'd missed him so freaking much it wasn't even funny. It was almost not worth it being in the competition with him absence. Almost. I was surprised Courtney managed to keep her feelings so beneath the surface all this time. She had to miss his cocky trademark smile, the way he touched her whether it be from love or anger, it was basically the same anyway, the way he left a certain feel to the air around him, and the way he kissed her. An infatuated smile began to form on my lips. "What do you think?" I playfully poked as an 'answer'.

He chuckled softly, wrapping his arms around my waist with care. "I know I missed you."

"Yeah..." I said softly, becoming more lost in my thoughts then before. I barely realized that time was passing as we hugged. I was that out of it. I only wished that we could do more then hug. Ah...I wondered what it felt like to kiss him. To have his lips pressed against mine and for it to be mutual, not something I initiated and he pulled away from. And then I realized how ridiculous I was being as well as how long I had been hugging him. My eyes grew wide and I quickly drew back. "I...um...sorry..." I mumbled, pulling at my sleeves nervously as a blush came to the surface of my cheeks.

He raised a brow. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head back and forth. "Nothing. We were just..." I trailed off, swallowing hard. "Courtney'll be here in a minute!" I said instead, smile slipping from my face. Why did the notion sadden me so? She was my friend. I shouldn't dread her presence like I did Duncan's absence. It wasn't right.

He frowned lightly, looking around me. "Why isn't she here right now anyway? She's on your team, right?"

I lowered my gaze. He had been waiting for her all along. He only mingled with me first because he saw me first and basically wanted to get our meet and greet over with. The thought hurt pretty bad too. I wished he thought more of me like I did of him. "The others don't know I went this way." I paused, allowing myself enough time to concoct a perfectly worded answer. "We were headed the opposite direction when I thought I saw something. I didn't want to be wrong again like in the Amazon so I slowed so that I was in the back and then slipped over this way." I hung my head. "Now we'll probably lose since I'm not there."

His frown deepened. "Nah. Remember? Part of the challenge is you have to find me." he winked at me, perhaps hoping it would bring the smile back to my face. "As long as you have me you'll be fine."

I blinked a couple of times. The way he worded it was odd. He almost sounded as if he meant something more in general, not just a challenge. Like...love...?

I would have questioned his intentions had we not been interrupted by our 'leader'. "Gwen!" she cried shrilly. Her voice echoed throughout the place as did her footsteps, alerting me to the fact she was now right behind me. "Why the hell did you run off like that! Youu could have cost us the challenge and-" she stopped dead mid sentence, eyes growing wide as she came to a stop next to me. "Duncan...?" she breathed. She sounded as stunned as I had been. And who could blame her?

"Hey babe." he said like I knew he would. Yet it still stung. Why? Although it's what he didn't do that held my attention most. He didn't add some conceited comment, or try and work her up, he didn't even move to embrace her like he had me. Why...?

She was brimming with joy and her eyes filled with tears, yet she held her emotions down like always. "Come on!" she snapped, grabbing his hand. "We need you to win!"

He rolled his eyes at her, allowing her to pull him along regardless. Still he did look back at me with his brow furrowed and mouth curved into a frown of deep displeasure while his eyes practically begged for me to do something. What that something was was beyond me so I merely shrugged my shoulders at him and followed after the group.

We wandered about in this maze of a building for thirty more minutes, all the while listening to both Heather and Courtney gripe. Heather was griping at me for wandering off while Courtney was to the whole team in general for first losing me and then not remembering the way through this place. "You all are useless!" Courtney snapped, still hanging onto Duncan's arm, yet not paying him a bit of mind.

It was strange but no matter what words came out of the brunette's mouth he didn't seem to care. It wasn't like him at all. There was no attraction, no lust even, no nothing. In fact, he rarely looked at her at all, only doing so to glare at the back of her head or mock her. It confused the heck out of me. Was I supposed to laugh?

Amidst Heather's rant she peeked around her shoulder at me to see if I were paying her any mind. I suppose she saw I wasn't really, but she also saw something else, something much more important. She must've. I was laughing. Not full belly laughing mind you, just lightly so that Courtney wouldn't hear. It wasn't that I was laughing at her exactly, more so at Duncan's gestures, but I knew from experience that she would take it as such. It was the way she was. Not that it bothered me to bad now. She was my friend. Well...in a sense. We came together to get rid of, or at least torture, Heather.

For the first time since Courtney showed up a smile spread across Duncan's face. He was practically glowing now.

Knowing that Heather was still watching the happiness slipped away, my mouth turning into a flat line and eyes void of any emotion albeit embarrassment.

Duncan snickered at my reaction, slipping his hand effortlessly from Courtney's hold and moving a step or two over so that he was closer to me.

I lowered my gaze, tugging at my sleeve like I'd done previously. This was wrong. Maybe not to him, but it was to me. I liked him...a lot. More then I should. I might even...l-love. God! Why...why did my heart insist on doing this to me! This was just like earlier in this show when I had a crush on Geoff. Haha...how funny that had been. Even as Trent continued to do sweet gestures for me and I went along with it, because I liked him as well, I had been wanting to be with someone else. I sighed. I had gotten over Geoff though. Pretty easily too since Trent was giving me so much attention. However now there was no one else. Trent was gone, done, over, and no other guy in this stupid game could hold my attention, not even Cody. Only Duncan did it the way I wanted. He made me smile, made me laugh, comforted me when necessary, and at times, yes, made me cry. He didn't mean to do the last one, never! He didn't even know I cried actually because I refused to let him for it was always involving Courtney. Whenever I saw him kiss her with that intensity or touch her gently, sometimes even seeing them fight set me off and made me wish I were her. It was so God awful.

At some point during my misguided guilty trip he had somehow moved himself even closer to me so that he could whisper in my ear. "Does she ever stop?" he chuckled.

I didn't mean to but I couldn't help but smile. No matter how hard I tried to keep it down it didn't work. "Hush." I hissed, gently pushing his face away from my ear. Courtney could turn around at any moment and see us and we both didn't want that.

He seemed to get an even bigger kick out of this then he did my smile or laugh. "I feel for you." a pause so he could get close again. "I had to listen to it **all** the time."

"Shut up." I giggled, not bothering to push this time. It was pointless. He'd just put his head right on back over towards me.

Heather rolled her eyes at us, a devious smile forming. She was plotting. I could tell already. She'd be watching us closely to see if this friendship of ours wasn't all it was cracked up to be. And in a way I hoped she was right. I wanted him. As much as I liked Courtney now I couldn't deny the simple fact that I was falling for him and had been since near the end of tda.

"Finally!" came Chris's voice. "I thought you were **never** getting out of there." he spoke more to Chef with his next words. "Next time let's not do something so complicated since their tiny brains can't handle it." Chef nodded.

Both Courtney and Heather growled at the mention of their intelligence. They were after all the smartest people in existence.

"And you found Duncan-I mean, ah forget it. You win!"

"Yes!" cried Courtney. Winning always made her happy and much more tolerable.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Heather added, high fiving Courtney in response. An instant after she made sure to move as far from Courtney as she could while still being in the winning circle.

After that all we could do was wait for the other team to wander out, or at least until Chris grew bored of that and went looking.

"You seem to be doing well." Duncan said to me once Chris had gone and Courtney became caught up in fussing at Sierra for making Cody scream and Heather for being, well...Heather.

"We've only lost two challenges." I said proudly.

"That's not what I meant." he frowned. "And you know it."

I half smiled shyly, chuckling from embarrassment. "I'm not doing as well as you think." I assured. "Actually I'm pretty miserable." I admitted, sighing lightly.

"I know she's a bitch, but it can't be **that** bad." he laughed.

"It's not just her. Honestly she's the least of my worries...or was." I muttered the last to words so that he might not hear. "The other three are the pain."

"Wait-what...?" he stared blankly.

"When you're gone, she isn't even half as bad. She's like she was at the start of this stupid show. Nice."

He crossed his arms. "Are you trying to tell me that she's only a bitch because of me?"

I shrugged. "Kinda." I forced a smile.

He stared me down, expression almost cold.

I cowered slightly.

We remained as such for a time before he couldn't help himself any longer. He grinned and laughed at me. "You're funny." he pulled me into a hug, seemingly breathing in my scent as I was him. And for once he smelled nothing like Courtney. Uh...I mean, how would I know what he smells like! And Courtney...haha...no way. I did not know that.

"Courtney...she-" he cut me off.

"Forget about her. She should know we're just friends." My heart dropped, did this mean...he didn't feel the same? "Besides, even if we weren't, it's only a hug." he smiled suggestively, squeezing me tighter.

I swallowed hard, looking through the space between us to where Courtney stood. She was yelling, like usual, but something was different. Like Duncan did when he was with me now she seemed to glow. Despite her harsh words to the others her mouth was curved upward at the edges. Not completely different from any other day, but still different. She was most definitely happier with Duncan's presence even though they had barely spoken. Who was I to ruin her happiness? We couldn't be doing this, not out in the open. "No...I..."

Duncan sighed, letting me go so I could move back to my former position of standing at his side. "It's ok. I know you don't want to have her mad. I mean I **really** know."

What was wrong with him? The Duncan I know would never whine about Courtney no matter what she did or said. He was head over heels in love with her. Wasn't he? Or was I missing something? Had something changed over the time where he was gone? His feelings...? "Duncan...?" I said softly, eyes darting from him to her and back again.

He perked. "Yeah, baby? What's up?"

I chuckled. I loved when he called me that. He'd done so ever since tda. It was a pet name, but not in the same sense as it was for Courtney, or had been. I had my doubts now. The name could mean more for me at this point. "What happened to you?" it sounded so lame when I heard it. "I mean, you seem...different."

He moved his foot about in a circle, pushing the dirt around. He was nervous. He did that all the time when Trent acted crazy or he worried over me. I'm not sure why those made him nervous exactly, but they did. And now the mention of his behavior was having the same effect. "I've been through a lot."

I raised a brow, crossing my arms.

He sighed. "Whenever I was running around all this time I had plenty of time to think. Think about myself, Courtney, the way I live, and you." he swallowed hard.

"I don't understand..." I mostly did. I just didn't get why the time away from me made all this difference. As far as I knew time away from the one that you were actually with made you miss them, not your best friend. As I waited impatiently for a response I stared deep in his teal eyes, wanting him to be as lost in mine as I was in his.

"And we're back!" Chris's voice broke through the silence and made me jump. And the whole Team of Alejandro's trailed behind him with disgruntled looks on their faces. He must have told them that they were the losers of todays challenge already. "And as the losers of todays challenge, since you'll be losing a player, you get Duncan by default."

What!" Duncan, Courtney and I said in unison for various reasons. Both her and me because we wanted him with us and him because, at least I guessed, he wanted to be around me.

"Now get your butt over here with the rest of your loser team." Chris ordered, pushing him over there and away from me.

"That's not fair!" Courtney whined, stamping his foot. "We won! We should get the prize!"

"You do. You get the pleasure of being stuck with your whole team in first class." he snickered, knowing that that wasn't a prize at all, especially when compared to having Duncan by her side all the time. Although, I'm sure he didn't feel the same.

She emitted a low growl, hands clenched into tight fists that shook from fury and quite possibly disappointment at losing him for the second time.

I too was saddened by the realization that contact with him would be hard now. But...hey! This way I wouldn't be tempted. This was perfect! Yes! "Good." I said to myself, smile bright even as I took in Courtney's anger and Duncan's half sad face for the loss of me. Not even he could make me feel bad now.

"Move it!" Chris screamed, directing all of us back on the plane. Fun.

We were back in first class doing as we always did while I tried my best to listen to the ceremony that was going on. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't care a bit about it, but with Duncan being back and on that team and all it mattered so much more. I didn't want to lose him again. I leaned farther back in my seat and tried harder to zone everyone else's voice out. So I closed my eyes. It was easier that way.

Unfortunately no matter how hard I tried I could hear nothing. It didn't help that Courtney wouldn't shut up about losing Duncan to such an 'incapable' team. "God! Chris did it on purpose! He is such an ass!" she punched the arm of her chair.

Heather was cackling up a storm at this point in Courtney's complaining. She loved to see her miserable almost as much as Chris did.

"Shut up!" Courtney snapped.

"N-No thanks!" she spit out between laughs, wiping her eyes every so often to keep tears of joy from spilling over.

I shook my head, rolling my eyes at how petty they were acting. I refused to be apart of it either, even if it meant not sticking up for Courtney or even turning her down if she were to ask. It was bad enough me walking around crushing big time on her boyfriend, but dealing with all this was awful. I couldn't handle it all.

Courtney jumped up and looked about ready to pummel Heather right here and now. This was gonna be interesting. I rested my head in my hands, predicting this would be a very short pointless fight where Heather would lose as always.

Heather hopped up, hands balled into fists.

It probably would have escalated the violence like I hoped but no thanks to Chris and his megaphone. He found it necessary to announce the loser with it, alerting all that Noah was the one to say goodbye this time around. I sighed, relieved that Duncan hadn't been kicked out the moment he came back.

Courtney's reaction was much more pronounced. She completely forgot about Heather and jumped in the air from excitement. "Yes! He made it!" she cheered, running out of the room an instant after to find him.

Heather and I stared after her for a minute or so before she spoke. "What a freak." she rolled her eyes.

"She's just happy Duncan's back." I shrugged, knowing the feeling.

She snorted. "Then why aren't you following her?" she smirked, crossing her arms. "I **know** you missed him."

I looked away from her. "Of course I missed him. He's my best friend. But he's her-" I stopped short, raising a brow as she suddenly broke into laughter. "What?" I yelled after listening to her go on for what felt like forever.

"Why do you even bother saying that? We all know it's bull crap, well at least **I** do. Ever since that little blog of yours it's been way obvious. And honestly I knew it was coming long before." she snickered.

"Not true!" I snapped, a blush creeping up on my face all the while.

"Uh-huh." she nodded slowly, a conceited smirk on her lips.

I made a noise similar to that of a growl mixed with an irritated sigh and stood up. "That's it. I'm leaving!"

"It's ok. I know you can't be away from your boyfriend for to long." she waved me off. "So go on."

I half screamed, stomping off to vent in the confessional. "I **hate** her." I grumbled. Once there I went on and on for what felt like forever before I was sure enough of myself to leave and go back to first class. Only the problem for me was when I walked out I walked right into one of Duncan and Courtney's moments.

I caught half of her sentence "-you big lug!"

His eyes grew wide and the anger fell from his face, but even as he wrapped his arms around her I could tell he wasn't satisfied with her being her. She'd yelled, I'd heard it a bit, but I didn't think that mattered to him. I guess I was wrong.

And then he noticed me. It was the doors fault really. If I hadn't let it fall shut like that he might've ignored me. But the situation being as it was his blank expression grew brighter and a smile spread across his face.

Courtney however didn't notice, making me feel ten times worse. "I'm not really mad! I just...missed you."

He stood there and smirked at me, responding as if he were talking to her. Only we both knew better. "Every time I ran from the cops, I thought of you..."

Damn it Duncan! Damn it, damn it, damn it! **Why**? Why are you doing this? Can't you leave well enough alone? You have Courtney, I have...no one...but come on! She loves you! Why don't you love her anymore? God! This was way to complicated. I hate complicated. And I couldn't bear to stand here another minute stealing away what Courtney figured was her attention. But I couldn't go anywhere aside from back into the confessional, so that's where I went.

I sighed. "I don't know how everyone else can sleep, especially Courtney. I'm still buzzy like I drank to much coffee. You know?" I froze, eyes widening. "Cause we won." I chuckled nervously. I then began twiddling my fingers. It was a bad thing I'd started doing when I thought to much about him. Something I should stay far far away from. "And Duncan's back...and...he missed...us." I smiled like a love struck school girl, infatuation showing clearly.

I might've stayed that way for a long time if the click of the door hadn't caught my attention. I swiftly turned my head toward the door, eyes widening as I saw it was Duncan who entered. "Oh my gosh I didn't lock the door!" I clamped my hands over my mouth.

"The lock's busted." he motioned back at it. "What happened to your paw?"

The question barely registered in my mind as I was busy staring at his perfect face. No wonder Courtney fell for him like she did. I was only surprised she fought so hard to hide it. I snorted. Funny. I sounded like a bit of a hypocrite when I said it that way since right now I was fighting hard not to let on to much that I loved him now. But at least I had a reason. She was just stubborn. Then I noticed I hadn't answered him. I looked down at my hand. Odd. I didn't remember doing anything. "This is so stupid, but I have **no** idea." I smirked mischievously, figuring I'd add playfully. "And I'm so glad you're here to mock me about it."

"Me too." he said in his enticing voice, taking my hand in his.

"Ow." I yelped, getting over it quickly. "Hey..." I muttered, getting lost in his wonderful teal eyes.

Strangely he seemed just as lost in my eyes.

No. No, no, no. This is wrong. Don't do it Duncan, please don't do it. Don't cheat on her. Especially not with me. I have to much of a conscience. I started to actually say something too, but I was to slow and him to fast.

He moved his free hand around my waist and pulled me closer to entice me further. And sadly it worked.

I willingly let him pull me all the way so that our lips locked. It was awful! Absolutely awful! Not really the kiss itself...it was amazing. The best kiss I'd ever had. Much better then when I kissed Trent. It was the circumstances that put a damper on it. He should have broken up with Courtney first. He shouldn't be kissing me back. Just like I shouldn't be kissing him! It was just to good. I'd imagined this since before he was kicked off the show. I pictured him coming back and taking me in his arms and loving me instead of Courtney. When I dreamed it it always turned into a nightmare thanks to my conscience...but before it got to that point it was as wonderful as it was now. Only now the horror of keeping this secret came with it. What was I supposed to do...?

**Just kinda a work up to the kiss and all the thoughts that went along with it. I don't know if the writer's will actually bother giving good reason behind Duncan's change of heart but here's how it should go. It doesn't really give a reason either but at least it isn't just 'oh I'm back after a long journey and I suddenly have the urge to kiss you. :p'. Hope you like. But I won't be doing Courtney's reaction to this mess. Not this time. School just started back and I barely have time to think about something like this. lol And did ya notice I made a nod to the coupling earlier on before the show aired? It was going to be Gwen/Geoff. XD Plz review! :D**


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